


Thirteen Ways of Looking at Mulder

by thebasement_archivist



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Filk, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1998-07-31
Updated: 1998-07-31
Packaged: 2018-11-21 01:17:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11346957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebasement_archivist/pseuds/thebasement_archivist
Summary: Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived atThe Basement, which moved to the AO3 to ensure the stories are always available and so that authors may have complete control of their own works. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address onThe Basement's collection profile.





	Thirteen Ways of Looking at Mulder

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Basement](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Basement), which moved to the AO3 to ensure the stories are always available and so that authors may have complete control of their own works. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Basement's collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thebasement/profile).

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at MULDER by Doc Eap

Author's Note: This poem began its life as "Thirteen Ways to Look at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens, which is a good poem (I think), and somewhat strange on its own. However, the simple step of replacing the word "blackbird" with the word "Mulder" throughout the poem brings it to new heights of bizarreness. And yet ... perhaps to the perceptive reader, a new layer of meaning has been added?

* * *

Thirteen Ways of Looking at MULDER  
by Doc Eap

I.  
Among twenty snowy mountains,  
The only moving thing  
Was the eye of MULDER.

II.  
I was of three minds,  
Like a tree  
In which there are three MULDERS.

III.  
MULDER whirled in the autumn winds.  
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV.  
A man and a woman  
Are one.  
A man and a woman and MULDER  
Are one.

V.  
I do not know which to prefer,  
The beauty of inflections  
Or the beauty of innuendoes,  
MULDER whistling  
Or just after.

VI.  
Icicles filled the long window  
With barbaric glass.  
The shadow of MULDER  
Crossed it, to and fro.  
The mood  
Traced in the shadow  
An indecipherable cause.

VII.  
O thin men of Haddam,  
Why do you imagine golden birds?  
Do you not see how MULDER  
Walks around the feet  
Of the women about you?

VIII.  
I know noble accents  
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;  
But I know, too,  
That MULDER is involved  
In what I know.

IX.  
When MULDER disappeared out of sight,  
It marked the edge  
Of one of many circles.

X.  
At the sight of MULDER  
Running in a green light,  
Even the bawds of euphony  
Would cry out sharply.

XI.  
He rode over Connecticut  
In a glass coach.  
Once, a fear pierced him,  
In that he mistook  
The shadow of his equipage  
For MULDER.

XII.  
The river is moving.  
MULDER must be travelling.

XIII.  
It was evening all afternoon.  
It was snowing  
And it was going to snow.  
MULDER sat  
In the cedar-limbs.

  
Archived: April 02, 2001 


End file.
